Conventional production of fuels and lubricants is still dominated by conversion of mineral petroleum feeds into desired products. In order to supplement and/or replace the conventional sources with renewable forms of energy, a variety of problems must be overcome.
One alternative to conventional fuels and lubricants is to produce comparable fuels and lubricants based on biomass. One potential advantage of biomass based fuels and lubricants is that the resulting product may be compatible with existing infrastructure and technologies. Ideally, biomass based fuels and lubricants would be used in a “drop-in” fashion in place of conventional products, allowing the use of a renewable product without having to modify existing equipment. Another potential use would be producing blending stock compatible with conventional fuels and lubricants.
Published U.S. Patent Application 2009/0081748 describes an integrated process and system for production of biofuels using algae. Processes are described for producing a variety of products, including a biodiesel product and an ethanol product.